The plan that Minister of Finance and Economy Mladjan Dinkic put forward for the Smederevo-based steel mill was backed at a meeting of Serbia’s state leadership and I believe that they judged it well that the plan is the best possible answer to the situation in that plant, Minister of Energy Zorana Mihajlovic said on Monday.
In response to certain media speculations saying that by her statement to the Belgrade-based TV Pink she voiced discontent over the plan for restarting production in the Smederevo-based steel mill, Mihajlovic underscored that all are aware that a strategic partner would be the best lasting solution.
On Monday morning, the minister said that it depends on a government decision whether the Plan B would be the one proposed by Dinkic, adding that the solution would probably need some improvement, as she has not heard anything about the Plan B at the government meeting so far. On that occasion, she posed a question as to “where we are then, if we should all pay for restart of the steel mill that would not bring any benefit.”
In today’s release, Mihajlovic stresses that the Serbian government is trying to find the best possible solution so as to keep 5,000 people in the job, and Smederevo alive.
“My wish is that we should all engage in resolving this issue so that the Plan B could be the best and most effective possible,” she noted.
In March 2003, U.S. Steel bought the mill, then named Sartid, but withdrew from Serbia due to poor business results late in 2011, selling the steel mill to the Serbian government for symbolic one dollar.
The government called the first tender for the mill’s strategic partner in April 2012, which was extended several times. The last deadline expired on Thursday, and Russian Uralvagonzavod did not respond to the tender as it had been expected.
Source Tanjug
